Rhetoric Review Apr 2020

Who Cares if Johnny Writes with a Pencil? Or, a Hauntological Historiography of Materiality in Composition-Rhetoric

Manuel Piña

Abstract

Composition-rhetoric is experiencing a surge in research examining how the material is rhetorically consequential, sometimes termed new materialism. However, much of this research is future-oriented, leaving intact traditional disciplinary values. This article offers a hauntological re-reading of our disciplinary history from a materialist perspective wherein we are always-already material. By examining three canonical articles where the original research is haunted by the rhetoricity of matter, the field’s traditional history and, concomitantly, current-future identities are left radically open and unsettled. New adjacent possibilities are available for realization only if/when we render our past-present-future selves unfamiliar.

Journal
Rhetoric Review
Published
2020-04-02
DOI
10.1080/07350198.2020.1727079
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Topics
rhetorical criticism archival research
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Ringer et al. (2021)
    Posthumanizing Writing Transfer
    College English

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